[Music]
Hello and welcome to In Wisconsin.
I'm Patty Low.
Each week we bring you stories about the people places
and issues in our state.
This week as we wrap up 2005, find out how the first
year in office is going for a native Texan who
became mayor of Shiboygan.
Keep the streets safe in style with the road crew and effort
to reduce drunk driving.
And meet a man who has made it his mission to remember
all of the coalition soldiers killed in the war on terror.
We'll also take a snowy walk in the woods on this last
2005 edition of In Wisconsin.
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Wisconsin's technical colleges, communities first.
For about 150 years, immigrants have been coming
to Wisconsin, originally most were from Europe.
Today, Hispanics are by far the fastest growing ethnic
group in the state.
So it's not surprising that
this past spring, a major Wisconsin city, Shiboygan,
elected and Hispanic mayor.
What is surprising is the issue that won him that election.
Reporter Art Hackett met Mayor Juan Perez to hear more
about that issue and how his first year in office is going.
On the third floor of Shiboygan City Hall, just
across from the mayor's office, stands a cabinet.
It's full of mementos of the city's
relationship with Germany.
Shiboygan is, after all, the Wisconsin city known for
its Broughtwurst festival.
I want Perez.
I want Perez to hear that I will support the Constitution
of the United States.
Shiboygan is also known as the first major Wisconsin city
to elect and Hispanic mayor.
Shiboygan has a growing Hispanic population.
In 1980, there were 767.
As of the 2000 census, there
were over 2800 Latinos.
This is a report where there was something like 35 or 100
of so of people who were in Shiboygan of Hispanic descent.
But Mayor Juan Perez says there are few of any strongly
organized Hispanic groups.
And I think that's good.
I think that when you do that,
there's a price to pay for that.
You pull yourself away from being part of the big body.
And it sacrifice a lot in doing that.
This is America.
This is our country.
We love it.
We respect it.
We honor it.
Perez is a native of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
The story of how he wound up in Shiboygan is a short one.
Perez came to visit a friend who lived down the road in Ustberg.
He came to visit a friend after I graduated and he
persuaded me to look for a job.
And decided to bring the family.
The story of how he came to be Mayor takes a little longer.
Perez is not a newcomer to electoral politics.
He was on the school board in Crystal City, Texas while
he was still in his 20s.
I've talked to people that have been in public office here.
And somehow we've concluded that some of
us have this thing in us.
Whatever that thing is, that we always want
to make a difference.
Perez earned a law degree, but his business in Shiboygan
was refinishing antiques.
Over the years, Shiboygan changed.
In addition to more Hispanics, the population of Mun grew too.
The increasing diversity was one reason one Perez decided
five years ago to seek election to a school board
seat to which he had previously been appointed.
I became the first elected official to hold public office
in the city of Shiboygan in the 150 years that we existed.
Which was really nice.
First Hispanic.
For any minority.
Perez eventually was serving on the school board and the
city council at the same time.
And by 2000, Perez had a new job.
Raymond Hernandez had hired Perez to expand minority
enrollment at the UW-Shiboygan.
By the minute, our student body looked more like the
population of Shiboygan.
But the reason one Perez was elected mayor had nothing
to do with ethnic diversity.
Well, it was Sheridan Park.
The controversy over locating the police station in the park
was the subtext of Perez's campaign against two term
incumbent mayor Jim Schram.
He has put us in a dangerous position of losing our
barely adequate bond rating.
He supports the destruction of Sheridan Park.
Or little or 3000 signatures came in as a petition.
An informal petition asking the city council and the mayor to
please not destroy the park.
That petition was filed and for most people who
don't know what file means they simply threw it away.
I have listened.
Proposed solutions and worked with
the common council order to make Shiboygan everything
it can be and should be.
Again, Shiboygan works.
It's been a lot of crime activity in this area.
And we were just trying to...
we felt that it would be a good thing for the neighborhood.
Dimple Adams lives near Sheridan Park.
She was part of the continuing battle over the police
station, which played like a soap opera in Shiboygan's
city cable channel.
What is the matter with you people?
I don't understand this.
It's like we've addressed three questions.
Number one, do we need a police station?
I think we've answered that.
I will do everything I possibly can to build
this police station.
In my mind, in my heart, this police station
is going to get built.
When the game played out, the council voted to build the
new station next to City Hall.
That's where the police station is right now.
Mayor Perez likes games.
There's a bouquet of paper flowers in Perez's office.
It includes miniatures of three table games.
My kids played Monopoly because there was a family
game and that gave them the opportunity to handle money
and deal with money issues.
They played Scrabble because they gave them the opportunity
to learn different words and improve their vocabulary
and they played chess.
They removed their make as a consequence and you better
think five steps ahead.
He is about four or five steps ahead of everybody.
There was some people surprised by the true politician, who is.
I mean, he is a tactician.
We can expect.
Mayor Perez will need to be a tactician if he's to solve
Shaboygan's budget problems.
Our costs, our expenditures, far exceed a revenue.
He's been holding listing sessions around the city.
That's something Perez promised during the campaign.
I wonder why our council vote last night, 15 to 1, to build
a fire station, which I don't say that they don't need.
The meetings involve a detailed survey of attendees' wishes.
They are led by a volunteer facilitator.
Perez spends much of the time in the back of the room listing.
People want to talk.
They want to ask questions.
Sometimes a little frustrating for them when we say we'll get
back to you because if we get into asking answering questions,
you don't get the feedback that we're there to get.
I need your help.
I'm not Superman.
If he's not Superman, who is Juan Perez?
You can tell some things from the decor in his office.
The stuff I keep in my wall, so I don't forget
what I told the people I was going to do when I ran.
I already know what you're going to ask me.
If Juan Perez does indeed work five steps into the
future, it begs a question.
When you start your candidacy for governor?
I haven't given that thought in my political career.
Remember, I've been in office for less than four months.
It's an office that's ten years or four years.
Now, that's provided.
There's a lot of residual resentment.
Some people are still upset that I won.
I don't know how long that's going to linger, but
there's even talk about a recall because they're that
upset with me that I won.
And they're upset with me because I'm making some changes.
I need your input.
It's very important for you
to provide your input.
Thank you very much for being here tonight.
It's a great honor and pleasure to serve you.
Have a good night.
[applause]
At the close of 2005, Mayor Perez reports that even though
it hasn't been smooth sailing, he's still in office and has
plenty of work to do in 2006.
[music]
As we head into a new year's weekend full of celebrations,
for some, those celebrations will likely end in tragedy.
Tragedy caused by drinking and driving.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation,
one-third of all fatal traffic accidents in the state
are caused by people who have had too much to drink.
A UW-Madison professor has decided to tackle this
tragic problem head on.
His solution seems backwards to some,
but producer Frederica Freiberg reports that
this social experiment is producing positive results.
[music]
Jamie Rodriguez has been drinking at a bar in
rural Iowa County tonight.
In fact, he's still working on a beer, but he won't be driving.
He's got a ride.
It's a stretch limousine.
It's a very safe idea, even though I'm drinking, but
that's why I'm drinking, and because I know
I can get home safe.
That's music to Iowa County Judge William Dyke's ears.
It's been your withdrawing your plea of not guilty and you're
about to be found guilty of operating after revocation,
and operating while intoxicated second offense.
Over the years, Judge Dyke's courtroom has become a revolving
door of drunk driving cases.
Did you read this before you signed it, sir?
We weren't really making a great deal of progress getting
the drunks off the road.
That is, until the judge learned of an outside-the-box idea
from a UW-Madison business prof, the drink as much as you
want and ride in style model.
It's capable of controversy.
It's capable of being misunderstood,
because it is counterintuitive.
But when you get to the reality, and that is of the opportunity
it presents to reduce traffic, harm, exposure, let's try it on.
Professor Michael Rothschild is a leading expert
in social marketing.
It's premise, give people something better, and
they'll switch brands.
In this particular case, the competition for is the brand
called, "I can drive myself home no matter how drunk I got."
Working with the DOT, Rothschild spent a year
sitting in bars talking to guys in the target group.
Men ages 21 to 34.
Because statistically, they caused the most
drunk driving crashes, and the people trying to
change their behavior had to understand it first.
And what about the criticism of, isn't this
enabling people to drink?
We talked about that when we did the focus groups,
and their comment was, "No, not really.
We already drink as much as we can.
We can't really drink more.
You're not allowing us to drink more.
We already drink as much as we can.
We drink until we don't have any money in our billfold."
There are safe ride programs in Wisconsin, a
lot of safe ride programs.
And those programs give people a ride home at
the end of the night, but they don't give
people a ride to the bar.
The guys told us, "If you want us to take a
ride home with you, you better give us a ride to the
bar, because we're not going to leave our cars behind."
They told us that their vehicles are very precious to them,
and if we want them to ride with us, we need to
come up with a vehicle that's as good as theirs.
So we asked them what they'd ride in.
They told us something nice,
and they said, "By the way, we can smoke in our cars, so
you're going to have to let us smoke in your vehicle."
And by the way, we drink while we're driving, and you're
going to have to let us drink in your vehicle as well.
After all the input, road crew was born.
On-call rides in super nice vehicles.
"It's very nice ride.
The limousine is a lot nicer than my truck."
"God, you'll ride!"
In Iowa County, two concerned citizens got it off the ground.
Denny Markline owns an auto body shop and the fleet of limos.
Joanne Munson helped write the grant proposal
for Startup Funding.
They're joined by a rotating group of some
120 volunteer drivers.
Remember Ryder, Jamie Rodriguez?
He didn't have to dig very deep to pay for his road crew ride,
because making it cheap was built into the program.
In social marketing, it's known as reducing
barriers to the new brand.
"We will pick them up at home if they would like us to, and
we'll take them to the bar or wherever they'd like to go.
And take them back home again for $5."
If a patron drives themselves to the bar and then can't drive,
a call to the road crew gets them a limo ride home,
and gets their own car safely home.
Again, $5.
"Please leave me with the clue."
For $10, road crew picks up, takes a person bar
hopping all over the county, and home at the
end of the night.
"But I've lived here with you this whole many times."
Despite the low fares, the program pays for itself.
That's thanks to volunteer drivers and lots of rides.
Because in Iowa County, road crew has given 9,000 rides,
since hitting the streets two and a half years ago.
"We found ourselves in the back of the limo a few times too,
and so we had to give back, I think.
This has been nice, and we have driven probably 200 and
plus some miles in one night, which could be a long night, but
I'd rather be busy than having no calls all when, you know,
because people are driving than they shouldn't be, so."
"You get to meet a lot of different people, and
see some of your friends, and keep people safe."
DOT officials say follow-up studies show the road crew has
reduced drunk driving crashes, and the program has risen
above any initial concerns.
"People that are against drinking still see the
value of keeping impaired drivers off the road."
"It's kind of nice coming home in class, I
suppose to, I'll care."
"Yeah, I'm just a birthday girl, I'm a birthday girl."
[laughter]
[music]
Since the road crew began providing rides,
O.W.I. crashes have gone down 17% in Iowa and Poe counties.
The DOT reports that the crew will hit the road in four more
counties in the coming year, Baron, Grant,
Milwaukee, and LaCrosse.
The end of a year is a time to look ahead to new beginnings,
but also a time to look back and reflect.
In 2005, the sudden tragedies of hurricanes Rita and
Katrina and the Stoten tornado shook us deeply,
and the steady stream of news about soldiers killed
in Iraq and Afghanistan has created for many,
anger, frustration, and an almost paralyzing sense of loss.
But one man in Walworth County has put his
emotions into action.
Early in the war on terror, Chet Barowski created a
tribute to fallen soldiers.
Each soldier is named and sadly the memorial grows daily.
Producer Joanne Garrett visited on a warm spring day.
[music]
People say in-war casualties happen, but
casualty is just a word.
Behind that word are really flesh and button men and
women who give up their lives.
I think it's still important to put this information up.
Men and women are still dying each and every day.
Each and every day, at the end of the day, Chet Barowski
heads out of his house to the edge of his property
on Peters Road in Sharon Township and
performs a daily ritual.
He changes the number of U.S.
and coalition soldiers who have lost their lives in Iraq,
Afghanistan, even the Philippines, as part
of the war on terror.
I have a lot of respect for all these people that are
just doing what they're told.
For whatever reason, whether it's loyalty
or patriotism or a job, they're making a tremendous
sacrifice and I feel driven to make them known.
List the casualty, their name, their picture,
one available, their hometown, and how they died.
What Barowski has created here is more than a
marker for the dead.
He has created a memorial, a way to remember each and
every coalition soldier.
From near, a specialist Michelle and Whitmer.
She was 20 years old with the 32nd Military Police
Company, the Wisconsin Army National Guard.
And a far.
The most recent coalition casualties.
The two Ukraine soldiers here, Constantine Mahalif
and Jaroslav Slochovitz, who were killed by hostile fire
in As-Suara, Iraq on April 28th.
He records the fallen from 16 coalition countries
who have lost soldiers.
When men and women were dying and it wasn't the lead story,
that was very upsetting to me.
So I began to make it the lead story, at least in my life.
Do I want others to see it and to pay tribute?
Sure. Everyone is the free
country. You're welcome to just drive on by, but my
hope is that more and more people come and pay tribute.
Barowski began the memorial in April of 2003, shortly
after the invasion of Iraq.
When the fallen, numbered only 58.
He started with this stone.
I wrapped this in black as a sign of mourning and
simply began to tally.
The best I could, the number of dead from day to day,
and unfortunately it goes.
I don't know.
The coalition memorial has grown from a black-taped
counting stone to panels of plywood that name each soldier.
This is a four by eight sheet of five inch thick
plywood painted black.
It's held up with posts and in advance of storm, I'll hold
it up as I have in the past.
It's a simple handmade memorial that requires sometimes
hours of work each day, sifting through websites.
If there are over 130 casualties in the month as there were in
April, quite some time, two, three hours, again it's dealing
with that fog of who died where.
Who died where?
Barowski has a full-time job working as a
therapist for the county.
He uses his free time to take on this job to penetrate that fog
of war, to get the true picture of exactly who died and where.
They have confirmed five U.S.
Navy sailors and one U.S.
Army soldier assigned to the first Marine
Expeditionary Force were killed may second in an indirect
fire attack on a military installation
in the Alonbar province.
Now, yesterday this news was out as a mortar attack
on a military base in Iraq.
Now there's more information.
So again, yesterday the news and the media was
it was five Marines.
Today they're confirming it's five United States Navy.
The story that emerges from the details can hit close to home.
One of the five sailors killed was petty officer's
second class, Michael Anderson, born in Ashkosh,
and shown here with his seven-year-old daughter Brandy
just before he left for Iraq.
Barowski has begun to collect news stories of coalition
casualties from local papers to add to the memorial.
This is the story of Casey Sheehan.
He was a rock, sister Carly's 23 said.
Anything he did, he did it with all his heart.
Casey is a toddler.
Casey is an elementary school.
Casey is a soldier.
Casey's grieving family.
His sister Carly.
His sister Jane, 18.
The details tell the story, the name, the age.
How many years on this earth that this man or woman had and
gave, and who grieves for them?
There is no politics to it if you're a
pro-war, come-patri-bute.
If you're anti-war, come-patri-bute.
If you value human life, come-and-patri-bute to the
men and women that have died.
I'll take all political sides as long as they
come-and-patri-bute. Since we first brought you
that report, the number of soldiers listed on the
coalition memorial has increased to more than 2700.
In late November, Chepp Rorsky added an eighth wall
to accommodate the names.
He also added the flags of Portugal and Sweden.
[Music]
That's our program this evening.
We leave you with a look at the winter snow blanketing
the Olsen Oakwood State Natural area in Dane County.
In addition to white, black, red, and burrow, you'll find
hickory, alme, basswood, and black cherry trees in this
southern dry forest.
Enjoy! For in Wisconsin, I'm Patty
Lo. Have a safe, joyous, and peaceful New Year.
[Music]